Heart Probes

Probes are used to find the depths of oceans and to draw topographical maps of what is otherwise hidden below. I find that many things act as probes so that I can discover what lives deep within my heart. A comment made by someone, even a seemingly innocuous one, can provoke a whole range of reactions that alert me to what lies within. A passage in the Bible, or even in a novel, can do the same. A painting, a photo, a landscape can be probes of my inner world.

Often, I may be tempted to ascribe to what lies outside of me the reactions that they provoke. My anger can seem to come from the remark someone has made and not from a wound that has been festering in me for years. Or I can ascribe to a “guru” the feelings of peace that his words have awakened in me. When I do that, I confuse the “probes” and the “reactions” and fail to become conscious of what lives within me.

The little stories I share are probes. When people react to them - if these "speak" to them – it is not primarily because of me. It is rather because what I am writing about is already active in their heart. I may sometime be a good probing instrument as a writer, but this instrument simply reveals that the beauty, the wisdom, the love or the hope that surface when they are reading my stories are already dwelling in their own heart. 

And what if my stories do not speak to them? It simply means that they have different sensibilities and therefore need other types of probes, or better probes, to discover the treasures that are most certainly hidden below.